Kanrai
Kanrai less known as Lightning Wind is one of the oldest and most powerful martial arts, capable of harnessing the power of the air itself to behave like lightning. Overview An ancient martial art that is said to predate the void century Kanrai, it is one of the oldest ways of fighting known to the species of the One Piece world, however due to it's immense age it has been constricted to being simply a legend to all but the few who have encountered it. Sadly for the unlucky few who have fought against it the lightning like fighting style has been etched into their memory. While it may look like a standard hard martial art Kanrai is deceptively complex in its inner workings, far more complex than the supermajority of the martial arts in the world. Kanrai's degree of skill is on a superhuman level even compared to superhuman fighting styles as such there are only a handful of cases where one could use an additional style of martial art outside of Kanrai, and even so both of them were learned simultaneously. The complexity of learning the fundamentals of Kanrai are so great that to learn it once one is already an adult is a task almost impossible, only attainable by the best geniuses, as such almost every single practitioner was born into it and grew up with constant use of it. Training Training for Kanrai is divided into 2 distinct training sections: Proper Form and Proper Physique. Proper Physique Kanrai is very strict when it comes to the body type it employs, because it requires both speed and power training for this is employed so as to maximize both power and speed simultaneously, endurance and defense comes as a byproduct but speed and strength should never have an edge over each other or risk failure. Balanced speed and attack is key to every single technique. Proper Form The biggest part of Kanrai is practicing the forms time and time again slowly and progressively speeding up. Practice is performed until it becomes entirely instinctual and second nature, as natural as breathing or blinking, merely muscle memory isn't enough the fundamentals must become part of the body's natural responses. The practice itself consists of simply going through the movements of Storm Pulse at continuously increased speeds for extended periods of time, an extremely tedious process that requires a lot of stamina and force of will as the movements themselves are incredibly complex and intricate. The whole form training of Kanrai is what enables one to properly execute any Kanrai technique without thinking about all of its steps and also what enables its trademark outcomes to exist. Storm Pulse The Storm Pulse is the fundamental concept at the base of Kanrai, it both creates the Lightning Wind and can also be used for "stunning". It is divided into two distinct but interrelated parts: The Physical aspect of Storm Pulse is the specific movements that are taught to the practitioners of Kanrai, they can be understood as "stances". Each "stance" of storm pulse requires one to move the part that they will attack in seemingly random directions for nigh-microscopic distances, with differing speed and power fluctuating at seemingly random intervals. While these seemingly pointless movements in the midst of a normal attack movement seem arbitrary, they infact weave and force the air around the area to become increasingly agitated. These movements by continuously moving the air around them in increasingly violent and erratic manners force the air itself to become sharp and lash out in a manner similar to how lightning would, creating the iconic "Lightning Wind" that practitioners utilize in their fights. The Mental aspect of Storm Pulse is the true path to mastering Kanrai, for it is the unconscious understanding of how the movements that make up Storm Pulse weave into one another to create the extremely powerful wind techniques. Once the mental aspect of Storm Pulse is fully grasped one can utilize Kanrai as a freestyle martial art that can create techniques on the go, because when the nature of Storm Pulse is understood one can create new "stances". Weapon Use While rare it is not impossible for Kanrai to be utilized with weaponry. By applying the Storm Pulse to the use of a weapon one can create the Lightning Wind using bladed weapons for even deadlier slashing damage. Direct Contact While the main aspect of Storm Pulse is to create the Lightning Wind it can be used on direct contact with someone by grabbing/grappling them or simply performing it before impact to stun them. By directly striking with the Storm Pulse one transfers the energy of the movements not to the air but to the enemies body creating the desired effect. The ensuing shockwaves by performing this will generally stun any enemy by forcing muscle contractions and sprains to happen forcibly in a process similar to forcibly pulling a muscle. Although the impacts aren't that great in the long run and will generally fail against stronger opponents it is still an effective use of the Storm Pulse and the center piece of a lot of techniques. Lightning Wind The most iconic aspect of Kanrai the Lightning Wind is simply any "air slash" that behaves in a manner similar to electricity without any of the electromagnetic properties associated with it, instead the "lightning" will have immense cutting power, one far superior to most air slashes. An interesting fact to add on top is that the Lightning Wind sounds like electricity crackling while it flies. While the lightning wind mostly looks like lightning with the use of the correct storm pulse pattern they can even seemingly "travel" over surfaces making them appear like they are actual lightning flowing through the materials and not actually just wind slashes. Techniques Overview A supermajority of Kanrai's techniques are performed with the use of Lightning Wind or the stunning component of Storm Pulse when applied with direct contact, very few techniques actually don't utilize both of these. Techniques are divided into 2 differing kinds: Senden and Ogis. Senden are the basic and advanced techniques that make up the common arsenal of practitioners of Kanrai. They employ basic uses of the Storm Pulse into their techniques to allow for quick and powerful attacks with insane firepower and speed. Because the Lightning Wind is an air blade small surfaces that can easily cut (elbows, fingers, etc.) are ideal for use, as blunt parts of the body may be wholly unable to perform any technique, this however ceases to become a problem as one gets more experience. Some techniques include: *'Kanrai Senden: Lightning Surge'- The basic technique performed by all practitioners, it is nothing but a straight forward spear with one's fingers outstretched performing one Storm Pulse pattern between 1 to 10 times, when the movement is finished and the rhythm stopped the iconic Lightning Slash will fly forwards and strike the enemy with great cutting and concussive power. Ogis Ogis in Kanrai are the most advanced techniques employed and are distinct from basic and advanced techniques in two aspects: the order of magnitude of the number of repetitions of a pattern one must use to employ them in tiny spans of time and also by the distinct thunder like noise that happens as they are released, far more terrifying than the standard electrical crackling. *'Kanrai Senden Ogi: Great Heavenly Strike'- The logical limit of the basic Lightning Surge move, it is the same exact move but performed with around 500-1000 Storm Pulses in the same space of time, the ensuing Lightning Slash is several degrees more powerful and capable of destroying an entire building. Notes *Users of this style should only ever be able to know 1 more style, and that should be learned at the same time or after learning Kanrai. Trivia *Contrary to popular belief Kanrai does not in fact ever electrocute anyone, despite it appearing to. Category:Martial Art Category:Fighting Styles